Puzzle pieces
by Of Magic and Mayhem
Summary: In which Sollux is a confused high-school student that finds himself hopelessly falling for the charming man he met through his friend Feferi.
1. The compliment

Sollux had always been different, everything from the classes he took, or his amazing talent with computers all the way to his unique fashion sense. He usually showed up at school late, and often avoided as much social contact as possible. Yes different, he was definitely not like the others. His only true friend was a young girl named Feferi, a very bubbly happy lady who was almost the opposite of himself in every way. But yet miraculously they still got along.

They were sitting in a coffee shop together one day when a confused looking man wandered through the entrance; he stumbled over and ordered a coffee, glancing around as if he was looking for someone. Sollux couldn't help but staring, the young man had midnight black hair with one long purple straight down the middle, he was wearing a dark black tee-shirt and a striped scarf casually tossed over his shoulder with blue jeans and matching striped shoes. He wasn't hard to look at either, his high cheek bones and pale skin made his face actually quite attractive, but Sollux quickly pushed that thought to the side. He often feared others could read his thoughts and would rarely let his mind wander like that when out in public places. Nobody really knew much about Sollux, he was often quite reserved and even Feferi had a hard time getting him to open up.

Soon he subconsciously found himself staring at the man; perhaps he was just admiring the young man's clothes. Yes that had to be it! See Sollux's sexually had always been quite a mystery; even he didn't really know whether he was gay or straight himself. He told everyone he was straight, but Feferi always was a little suspicious of him. It took a minute for Feferi to realize she had lost his attention.

"Sollux?" she laughed "What are you looking at?"

Her eyes quickly darted back to the young man behind them.

"Eridan!" she yelled "What are you doing over there? Get over here, silly!"

The young man gave a surprised look and stumbled over.

"I-I-I couldn't find you." He said, very abruptly as if she had offended him

His voice was very unique; he had a stutter along with a very interesting accent which Sollux couldn't quite identify; it sounded slightly snobbish, which immediately turned him off.

"We were right her silly!" she said smiling.

"Oh umm, w-who's this?" he said nervously, his eyes quickly darting to the floor.

"Eridan, this is my friend Sollux. Sollux this is Eridan." She replied.

"O-oh umm, nice to meet you Sol." Sol? Were they on a nickname basis already?

"Nice to meet you too." Sollux says carefully picking words without S's, because of his stupid lisp which he absolutely despised. He didn't want to let this very attractive- Wait no! That's not what he meant! Very interesting, yes interesting man, hear his lisp just yet.

"Here you can sit down, while I go get me and Sollux something." She said while walking up to the counter.

Eridan sat down at the seat next Sollux.

"R-right then, so Sol how do you know Fef?" Eridan said, his stutter very prominent. Sollux debated for a while as to how he could respond without using any 'S's; before realizing that Eridan's wide owl like eyes now stared right into his own, which were currently concealed by darkened glasses due to his Heterochromia. After a while Eridan raised an eyebrow from behind his thick rimmed glasses, and Sollux decided it was hopeless and proceeded to speak.

"We go to thcool together, thhe uthed to know my brother. Why?" Sollux said, blushing slightly because how horrific that sounded with his lisp.

"J-j-just making conversation… You h-have a lisp." Eridan replied, slowly lifting his gaze from the table

"Yeah, and you have a thtutter, fuckath." That probably was a little harsh, sounded a lot like something his best friend would say. He just gets defensive when people point out his speech impediment, that's all.

"Touchy, Touchy." Eridan replied with a casual smirk spread across his pale face, somehow managing to drop the stutter for his sarcastic comment.

Man this Eridan guy was kind of a douche.

Out of pure instinct, Sollux scowled back at him, which conveniently wiped the smirk right off of his face.

"S-s-sorry, I think we got off on the w-wrong foot." His stutter returning; turns out Sollux's scowl were more powerful than he though. "And y-you know I w-wasn't making fun of your speech impediment, I t-think it's actually kind of cute." He Eridan said, a deep red painting it's away across his cheeks.

Both men froze and Sollux couldn't feel his heart pounding faster, he nearly choked on his own spit as his frantic brain attempted to processes what had just been uttered. He wasn't used to compliments in the first place, so having another man say such a thing came as a shock to him.

Before his thought processes could go any further, Eridan quickly leapt up from the table where they had been sitting and awkwardly darted out the door of the shop incoherently mumbling something about having to go.

He seemed nervous when he talked to Sollux, was this a good thing maybe? No, Sollux couldn't let thoughts like that drift into his mind. The idea that Eridan was evenly mildly attracted him, was absurd; the man clearly showed feelings for Feferi. But then again, he didn't seem like one who would be interested in females. Fuck this was confusing.


	2. Hopefully

Sollux slumped down on his bed, burying his head in the many white pillows that lay around him. It had been three days since the incident at the coffee shop, and he still couldn't get Eridan out of his head. He couldn't concentrate on school or his studies, even coding couldn't take his mind of the tall, pale skinned man he had met. A part of him keeps wishing he could see him again, run into him while out at the mall, he could bring to life one those classic, corny romantic movie scenes where you accidentally bump into each other blushing furiously, before getting wrapped up in a heated conversation followed by hot sex in a department store bathro- OH DEAR GOD WHAT WAS HE DOING. Lying there having dirty fantasies about a man he's barely met.

See this is why he always refuses to let his mind wander, lord only knows the type of stuff his convoluted brain is able to come up with when given the freedom to daydream. A quite buzz sound snaps him back to reality, as his phone displayed an unknown number followed by nine beautiful words.

_**Hey Feferi gave me y0ur number h0pe thats 0kay**_

It had to be Eridan, who else would suddenly contact him; especially by saying Feferi gave them his number. He doesn't remember her introducing him to anyone else recently although he had been quite zoned out lately. Cautiously Sollux tapped up a simple reply and hit send before flopping back down on pile of pillows which he now was officially calling his mountain of despair.

_**Who ii2 thii2?**_

His text read, and soon enough he received a reply_._

_**0h silly me its Aradia**_

_**Y0u kn0w Feferis friend **_

Oh. He had completely forgotten about her. He had bumped into her and Feferi a couple days ago. She was a small girl, midnight black hair with vibrant orange and brown eyes. She was very well spoken and calm and she had the weirdest fascination with death.

_**Oh riight 2orry ii forgot.**_

He replied back. Now that he knew in fact it wasn't the man he had met before, he seemed to relax. His answer was simple and effortless and his brain began to once again drift to other thoughts.

_**Its alright hey s0 I was w0ndering if maybe y0u wanted t0 g0 0ut s0me time t0gether**_

His mind was off at cloud nine at this point. He was paying no attention to the words that appeared on his screen. Thought nothing of what they actually meant.

_**Yeah 2ure that 2ounds cool.**_

_**Alright what ab0ut Saturday**_

_**2ound2 good, 2ay 7:00?**_

_**Yeah Ill see y0u then**_

_**Alright.**_

He lazily through his phone down on his bed, burying himself further into his mountain, shifting around and attempting to find a comfortable position. This was good, right? He was finally getting out, meeting new people, socializing. Maybe this year would be different; he could make friends, and maybe even find somewhere where he actually fit in.

An unexpected buzz caused him to jump.

_**Its a date.**_

Date. The word lingered in his mind. Then it him. This was not simply going out with a friend, this was a date. A boyfriend and girlfriend date. Oh god, how could he have been so stupid! He can't go on a date, he was terrible with relationships! Girls usually hated him! What was going on?!

He took a moment to recompose himself, before calmly getting his thoughts back into order. If he didn't show up, it would make him look bad, and he can't have that, especially since she's knows Feferi. That's it; he would have to go on this 'date'. He had no other choice, right?

Hopefully nothing would go too horribly wrong. Hopefully…


End file.
